Pre-Rooted 5.2.6.2 ROMs are now available for Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks

New pre-rooted ROMs of the latest 5.2.6.2 software version have just been released by Rbox. Those of you with already rooted Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks can now update your devices to the latest software version without losing root access.

To download the new ROMs, head over to the XDA Forum page for your device, found at the following links: Fire TV 1, Fire TV 2, and Fire TV Stick 1. Be sure to donate to Rbox to thank him for continuing to keep all of our rooted devices updated. If you appreciate my contribution of capturing the stock images that I passed to Rbox for him to use for these ROMs, you can support me through Patreon.

It’s safe to update directly to these new 5.2.6.2 ROMs regardless of what software version is currently on your device. You do not need to install previous updates before installing this latest one. Use TWRP custom recovery, by following this guide, to install these ROMs on your rooted device. Fire TV Stick 1 owners may need to refer to this guide to be reminded how to get into and control TWRP using a PC.

As always, these ROMs cannot be used to root your device. Your device must already be rooted to install these ROMs. To see if your device is rootable, see my guide here.

27 comments

This is interesting. Is there an article here that lists the advantages to rooting a firetv? Does it get you full access to the google playstore? Can you make your Ftv a chromecast receiver? Is it just the rush of doing it?

I don’t keep track of all the different things that can be done with a rooted device. For a partial list, you can see my guides that require having a rooted device here: http://www.aftvnews.com/tag/root+guide/

I’ve written this previously.
I agree that there is not an immediately apparent, jump-out-at-you reason to root the FireTV/Stick. The attraction for me is the increased control over a device that I actually bought, as opposed to one I merely rent like a cable box.

With my rooted FireTV/Stick, I get to decide when, or if, its upgraded. So I was previously able to stop updates while Amazon solved a bug they needed to so as to not interfere with SPMC screen refresh switching.

With a rooted device, I get to add, delete, or modify files as I choose to. Even if it breaks the device. And I alone am responsible for the benefit or consequence of such decisions. So if I want to use an app on my FireTV that is perfectly legal, but Amazon doesn’t approve of, I can do that. I don’t need to have their permission.

The FireTV2 is already a near perfect Kodi/SPMC box. If I choose to, and that is my priority, I can keep it so in perpetuity regardless of what Amazon does in the future. They can’t, like Sony did, spontaneously remove abilities that were present on the device when it was purchased or, like Garadget did, completely remove all functionality from the device on a petulant whim. (Google it if you’re not concerned enough about actually owning devices you pay for)

In short, rooting allows me to own the device I purchased. Its not something I paid for the privilege of using how they literally permit me to use it.

In short, I am a customer, not a subject. Rooting helps makes that more true.

Hmm, I think you might lack an understanding of just how little time is involved in rooting, or maybe you don’t know how long most movies and TV shows are. Or maybe the word “more” doesn’t mean what you think it does.

I can quite literally flash a new pre-rooted ROM in well under 5 minutes, and that is being generous on how long it takes, including booting into recovery. After the initial setup, the longest part of this entire process is typically downloading and transferring the ROM over to my micro sd card.

Heck, you can even skip that step by using Elias’ Downloader program to download the ROM directly to internal storage to be flashed.

As for the initial rooting process – If you have an hour to dedicate to it (and can follow along with Elias’ written guides), you would be fully rooted.

All in all, if you count 5 minutes of your time “tinkering” once in a while to be a giant burden, then sure, I guess we rooted users spend time tinkering, but absolutely no where near more time tinkering than watching content.

But hey, I am just a person who enjoys being able to fully use my product as I see fit. What happens if Amazon pushes an update that effectively breaks something I have set up or includes some anti-features I do not like? The fix is a simple 2 minute flashing process and I am back to where I want to be. Non-rooted users do not have that luxury.

Some people do not mind living in the walled garden Amazon sets up for them, but I quite enjoy doing my own landscaping ;)

Elias,
As usual, your notification is much appreciated….. Also, glad to see you are still able to balance your 2 little “crumb snatchers” with AFTVnews!!!
Update was as smooth as silk on a shoeshine…… Thank you.

haha, you bet. Sorry that there was never a 5.2.6.1 ROM released. The kids, holidays, and CES murdered my time and I never captured it. I never want to miss two in a row so I made sure to devote time to getting this 5.2.6.2 update captured.

Thank you Elias!
I know I saw the steps somewhere because I use your downloader program to download rbox’s sloane update plus md5 checksum file. Using downloader is simpler for me. Don’t have to even fire up my PC nor push files over to the unit. The entire install is done on my 2nd Gen Fire TV.

Then I plug in the USB keyboard and follow your excellent guide on here for updating the rom on prerooted systems.

I made a post about this on XDA, but I’ll mention it here: The SU fix to get access to the /sdcard path while root seems to “undo” itself. This fix is needed for a lot of root operations like using Titanium Backup. The solution is to install the latest version of SuperSU in TWRP rather than the fix. I tried Magisk in the past, but the FireTV won’t boot. I have no idea if the latest version will work. The advantage of Magisk is that it has root hiding built in, so assuming it worked with the Fire TV, apps like PlayStation VUE would work on a rooted FireTV.

Disclaimer: I have a bootloader unlocked FireTV 1. I don’t think Magisk is an option for devices without an unlocked bootloader. Always extract a copy of the boot_unlocked.img from the firmware and keep it on your device! If any attempt to upgrade SuperSU or apply Magisk goes wrong, you’ll have a CLEAN bootloader to work with.

If you want to try Magisk, put it on your FireTV 1 bootloader unlocked device with a copy of boot_unlocked.img from the firmware you’re running. Flash it first in TWRP, then flash Magisk and reboot. Chances are, it won’t work. You can reboot back into TWRP and slash the boot_unlocked.img and then the latest SuperSU to get root back. BTW, if you want to unroot your FireTV, but keep the ability to re-root later, just flash boot_unlocked.img. You still can’t get updates, but you can also run root-detecting apps again.

Is there an easy way to update my already-rooted Fire TV 2 to this newest firmware without losing all of my settings such as Kodi config? My Fire TV doesn’t work with my Amazon Echo devices, and I am guessing it’s because it’s on a very old version.

Yes, just follow the instructions. The update doesn’t affect kodi at all. As long as you don’t go in and do the optional wipe of system and data you are fine.

I have a rooter Fire TV 2 and it went flawlessly.

A few updates ago, I noticed my Fire TV and Echo wouldn’t interact properly. I ended up wiping my system (while keeping root) and doing a clean install. That seemed to help the echo dot see the Fire TV. Hopefully you won’t have to go through such dractic meatures.

One Fire TV the update didn’t impact Kodi, the other it did. Basically Kodi won’t start. I use Kodi for my OTA tuner so sucks it won’t work. I’m using the HD Homerun app at the moment which I hate because there is a audio video timing issue that I can never seem to get fixed. Either way, a reboot didn’t fix the issue, any suggestions short of uninstall and re-install of Kodi?

I installed the most recent pre-rooted ROM and it appears that my Paragon no longer works to help me mount my NTFS hard drive. I tried updating to the most recent Paragon, but it asks me to download another app from the Google Play Store, which I cannot do. Any ideas? Thanks.